Build affordable homes in an old retail building and make a contribution to sustainability by putting a shared car in front of the residents’ door. This sounds like music to the ears, but the regulations of municipalities are not yet cooperating in Hilversum and Gooise Meren. Developer Raoul van de Wetering is experiencing this, who has two plans to build starter homes. “They are not facilitating plans, but parking them.”
Makeltrent – Raoul’s company – has bought a retail property in Hilversum and Bussum, which the Hilversum real estate entrepreneur wants to convert into a residential location. The idea is to create five affordable apartments on the Hilversumse Havenstraat. At the neighbors in Gooise Meren, the idea is to create three starter places in the former Hubo DIY store on Laarderweg.
For the time being, the parking standard is the obstacle, as a result of which the housing plans cannot go ahead. With the parking standard, the municipality regulates how many parking spaces and per house must be available.
The bill
Meeting the standards – the parking policy – of the municipalities cannot be achieved on their own property at both Gooise locations, because there is simply too little space. That would mean that the entire construction plan cannot go ahead.
This put the developer on a different track: precisely because in both municipalities there are beautiful sentences in traffic plans about encouraging and realizing shared transport and to get the residents as much out of their own car as possible, he wants to install a shared car on Havenstraat and Laarderweg. .
In the first year, the bill is entirely for the Hilversum real estate entrepreneur itself. Later on, other residents would also be able to use the shared car. At the Hilversum location, the developer has made extra space in the plan for a bicycle shed in order to stimulate and facilitate the bicycle use of the new residents, which is also an aim of Hilversum.
“Given the plans of the municipality, you expect the municipality to cooperate. But instead of facilitating us, our plans are ignored and parked”
Installing a shared car contributes to the CO2 reduction, which means that small-scale housing projects can continue, which is not an unnecessary luxury in these times of housing crisis. This would enable the municipalities to make a start on their vision for the future of 2040.
That sounds nice, but for now it doesn’t seem to be coming to fruition. “We take everything into account and really don’t ask for anything strange. Given the plans of the municipality, you expect the municipality to cooperate. I think they are working on it. But instead of facilitating us, our plans are ignored and parked. “
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Local energy cooperative: ‘Make it a pilot’
In the Hilversum issue, Makeltrent works together with the local energy cooperative Hilversumse Energie Transitie (HET). Jeroen Pool, co-project leader for shared car at HET, reports that the collaboration with the real estate entrepreneur means expanding the possibilities for them.
“This is an extremely attractive broadening of our scope. For example, we can make agreements about prices with Makeltrent. That makes it less risky for us,” he explains. For the time being, HET is installing shared cars and charging stations on its own initiative – with the permission of the municipality.
Adjusting the parking standard and opting for a shared car on this approach street, where there is little space, can be a boost for the municipality. Only Pool sees that a number of things do not yet fit in the current policy of the municipality. For the time being, Hilversum adheres to the ‘rules of the game’, although the portfolio holder could choose to give the Makeltrent request pilot status. “There are more opportunities than being caught now.”
But Raoul mainly runs into a wall of bureaucracy. He is constantly told that he has to wait until there is a new policy and that can take a long time. He is still having conversations in Hilversum.
Fewer parking spaces
In Gooise Meren, the permit application was refused, while in the eyes of Raoul the municipality clearly opens the way to those that are more modern in the traffic plans. “In a local and regional context, we take the initiative to stimulate and realize sustainable mobility in new spatial developments, in combination with fewer parking spaces”, can be read in this document, for example.
The developer hardly notices this sustainable attitude. Raoul has since lodged an objection against the refusal of the permit application. According to Gooise Meren, the developer does not meet the parking requirement. It is difficult to deal with matters such as parking balance and need and the question of whether or not this is a special situation, so that the municipality has to go along with it. Incidentally, the permit was not only refused on the basis of the parking demand.
“It is a solution that increases, not decreases, the parking pressure”
Van de Wetering does not understand. “We want to give a positive vibe and we tick all the boxes and it is only one parking space on the street,” he reports.
public transport nodes
In doing so, he points to the lower parking standard that the council lowered two years ago around the three Hilversum public transport nodes. The developer notes finely that the municipality itself has all kinds of housing projects or plans there. That while the problem on the Havenstraat is exactly the same as in the neighborhoods of the train stations: space is limited and therefore good choices have to be made in the field of quality of life, housing and accessibility.
“The policy does not allow this solution”, the municipality of Hilversum reports in response to questions from NH Nieuws. “It is a solution that increases the parking pressure and does not decrease it”, is the further motivation. With that last sentence, the municipality means that the shared car will not be parked on its own property, but in front of the door of the building in question, which is the public space.
Shared car versus private car
The new residents can also simply apply for a parking permit, even if it is the intention that the real estate entrepreneur makes contractual agreements about this with the tenants. The municipality has no legal basis for saying no to these applications. Hilversum fears that in addition to a shared car in front of the door, there will still be the necessary private cars.
Raoul is still challenging the decisions of the municipalities, so that the plans do not yet have to be put on hold. He will face the municipality of Gooise Meren next Thursday to further substantiate his objections.